First of all, ogs *does* work on opera for me.
Now, a more detailed answer:
DrStraw wrote:Okay, so a lot of people here seem to think OGS is a good server. I decided to try it. My first impressions are very negative.
I am very sorry that you had a negative experience because it would be a pleasure to have you on ogs where I play most of my games. I will comment on your different points for information only. If you dislike ogs and love kgs and dgs there is really no decision.
DrStraw wrote:
It does not have a user friendly interface at all and is far inferior to DGS for turn-based and to KGS for live games. When I play a move in one turn-based game I have to navigate to my game list to see any other game. All other features also seem far inferior to the other servers.
After you play move in a turn-based game you can click the black circle in the upper right (that gives the number of games with moves to be played) to get to another game to be played. You can also choose the option that this happens automatically after a move in your settings.
Since you didn't list the other inferior features, I wonder if it is also a case of a lack of knowledge (which might be of course an issue of lacking documentation, I don't remember how I learned about all these things). I can just say that I am annoyed that kgs doesn't have the features I want (for example, looking at different moves while following a review, having more than one game/review open), but for all I know, it does have them, too, and I just don't know.
DrStraw wrote:
Almost no one seems to put up handicap games and no one seems to accept the games I put up, probably because I have too high a rank.
It is true that people play a lot of even games whereas on kgs handicap games are the norm. However, I do play handicap games, too, and they are quickly accepted (at 7 kyu). So, yes, this might be due to your rank, but also due to the fact that you are still provisional. Since there are not so many EGF 5 dan players, a lot of the 5d? accounts are beginners who misunderstood the ranking system.
However, it is also true that most high dan players know each other and probably don't get their matches via the challenge interface but via direct invitation in the chat or with their friends list.
DrStraw wrote:
Somehow I got a rank of 5d, which seems way out of line, but I have no idea what the ranking system there is so maybe it is okay. Apparently I created an account there at some point in the past (I have no idea when) and I must have said I was AGA 5d.
If you want to change your rank, you can simply ask a moderator to change it which is usually promptly done whether you ask in chat or with the moderator call button in the right side menu. Ogs ranks correspond more to EGF ranks than to AGA ranks.
DrStraw wrote:
The PLAY screen has some odd grid at the top which takes up most of the screen and requires me to hover over squares to see the game instead of presenting me with a list of game. If this ugly feature is to be present then it should be an option at the bottom of the page.
No argument here. I dislike the grid and I always immediately scroll to the games list. I get my games by putting up challenges and creating my own tournaments, so I actually almost never open this page at all and let other people look at the ugly grid while accepting my games.
DrStraw wrote:
OGS does not work on my favorite browser and forces me to open Firefox to run it. That is very annoying.
If you are talking about Opera it works perfectly for me (just checked again and successfully played a move), so it is hard to say what went wrong for you without further information.
DrStraw wrote:
Maybe there is a way to figure out who is online so that I can invite them to a game but if so I cannot figure out how. All I can see is a list of people in chat room.
There isn't such a list and if someone wants to be invited by strangers they should open a tab with the English chat. However, you can friend people and then you have a friends list that you can pop down on every page from the green thing in the upper right corner and see if people are here and invite them.
DrStraw wrote:
If someone can give me a good reason to pursue this server I would like to hear it.
Obviously, the good reason is that I would love to have you there and I am certainly not the only one. I am sure that you would have a better experience if you posted problems immediately in chat.
Apart from that, I know perfectly that first impressions count for a lot. The day I decided to play go I went to kgs first because I disliked the "best go server" self-description of ogs in my google search. My first experience on kgs was people talking unopposed about women's go abilities in a way that made me leave immediately and while I have played games in kgs in the meantime I will never feel that it is "my" go server. On the other hand, my first experiences on ogs were very positive. Everything worked fine and I always got matched up immediately as a beginner. So, I tolerated later negative experiences more easily. (There are annoyances that you did not list here at all because you have not yet encountered them.
)
Here is a comparison (which is just based on my experience and priorities) ( I can't comment on dgs and would be happy with more information on it.)
Some pros of ogs versus kgs (some of which might be due to my lack of knowledge about kgs):
* Works well across devices
* It is much easier to get even games against people with different rank
* Position search in all games/your games
* You can do your own sequences while someone else is controlling the review, lack of ownership just means that your sequences are only visible to you
* active developers who remove bugs and react to problems
* Much more beginners, so from 25k to 10k EGF it is very hard to get good (i.e. with people whose rank is correct) even games on kgs but easy on ogs
* One is not obligated to view the chat so if people say sexist things one is not forced to look at the chat while looking at the challenges
* Reactive moderations to trolls and people who try to sabotage the end of a game while kgs tolerates escapers
* If you set a challenge you don't have to check whether the person who *accepted* your challenge actually totally changed your parameters.
* You have your live games and turn-based games on the same browser, so you can play some moves while waiting for someone to accept your live challenge.
* I prefer the rank calculation of ogs which corresponds to EGF practices where you predict the rank change from the current rank for the two players. There is no problem with being stuck at a rank because you have played a lot at a lower rank.
* Malkovich logs.
Some pros of kgs versus ogs
* Less memory use than the PC browser version of ogs
* It is much easier to get handicap games
* More dan players, so it is easier to get games there for dan players
* Automatch is usually very fast